Buying a home is a big undertaking. So when you purchase a house, you typically plan to stay a while. But for how long? The average number of years a homeowner lives in their home before selling tends to vary over time. As recently as a few years ago, homeownership tenure was growing. It hovered around eight years for a long time, with it occasionally reading closer to 10. But these days, it’s headed in the opposite direction. In fact, according to ATTOM Data Solutions’ first-quarter 2023 U.S. Home Sales Report, homeowners who sold at the beginning of this year had owned their homes an average of 5.59 years. That’s down from 5.81 years at the end of last year and is the shortest tenure has been since the middle of 2011. Among individual metros, tenure dropped the most from last year in Atlantic City, which saw it fall 27 percent. Other cities where homeowners are on the move included Dayton, Tallahassee, Chattanooga, and St. Louis. Homeownership tenure was longest in the Northeast and West, with Honolulu leading the list with an average tenure of 8.21 years. (source)

If the pace of new home sales is any indicator, the housing market is about to pick up steam. New numbers from the U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development show sales of new single-family homes rose 9.6 percent in March from one month earlier. The improvement pushed sales to their highest level in a year and far exceeded economists’ expectations. In fact, forecasts had new home sales falling from February’s pace. So why did sales spike? Well, there are a few reasons behind surging sales. One is mortgage rates, which were mostly lower in March. Another is the lack of existing homes for sale, which has caused more home buyers to look for newly built options. Combine that with still-high levels of buyer demand and the start of the spring home sales season, and the nearly 10 percent jump isn’t as surprising. (source)